I Met A Wolf! | Photography by Brenda Colwell

I Met A Wolf! A real pure bred, graceful, beautifully long legged, wary wolf. She liked cheese and she liked my camera bag, attempting to steal it when I was not looking. A domesticated local friend.

I live in the Wilderness of Colorado, in the highest parts of the San Juan mountains where there is still a wild component in our civilization in the cozy little ski town of Telluride, Colorado.

If you want to call us civilized, I leave that to you. It is truly wild. Not just the locals who live here, but the critters that walk past my bedroom windows at night, the bears that rip apart my bird feeders and raid trash cans, the mountain lions that appear and disappear so quickly that your eyes hardly have time to focus, and the endless squirrels, rodents, mice, marmots and birds that sit on fence posts and rocky outcroppings like protective sentries. And the wolves!

Denali is a sort of pet. She is protected in 2 acres by a 10 foot high, electrically charged fence to keep predators away from her. Human Predators. She has a half-wolf friend who lives with her in her wolf fortress, and she has free run of a 5,000 square foot luxury mountain home with "a wolf door". Her slightly introverted, yet affable, protector granted me two visits with her, under the agreement that I never disclose her location or his name. An unforgettable, yet civilized, portrait session ensued as I lay flat on my belly in the grass and snow photographing her. I went home with a camera full of treasures, and she was gifted a giant bone and some cheese.